Well, it was a nice experiment, but I learned that the nested comments feature caused more trouble than it solved.
I was having trouble myself following some discussions, and if I’m having trouble, many other are as well. Another issue was mobile browsers, I had no idea how many people read WUWT on Iphones and such, and for them the issue of readability is even more important.
So I’m returning to linear format, with oldest comments at the top.
– Anthony
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agree hard to follow
Thank you. I thought it increased the bad behavior and ill manners while decreasing the quality of thoughtful discourse. I even felt myself wanting to make short pithy comments. I am glad that we are returning to the more formal requirements of standard debate.
Comment nesting needs a visible structure beyond indentation to make the connections clear enough for readers. Over at Climate Audit the comment number and link feature seems to work well for tracing discussion threads within a posted topic. Can that be done here?
Got snarled up a few times Anthony but it does have some good points!
Mayhaps, a few more days to experiment!
Anthony, thank you for changing back to the old version.
Had no problem following threads myself, but I am happy to go with the consensus. Hang on a sec, I’ve heard that somewhere before….hummmm…
THANK YOU!!
Yaaaaayyyyy!!!!!!!!
I didn’t know about the mobile browser issues too. So it’s better to have it off. I did like the new feature but the world doesn’t revolve around me.
I like the feature at ClimateAudit where you can click ‘reply and paste link’ and it scrolls immediately down to the bottom and there you add your reply. You can click back immediately to the original comment by clicking on the ‘pasted link’ instead of scrolling up (past all the carcasses of snipped comments on the way, hehe 😉 ) to look for it. Readers of ClimateAudit will understand what I am saying. Sorry for the confusion I just caused for everyone else.
Thank You. I found myself not reading as much the past few days because it was too hard to find current posts.
I am a very simple-minded fellow, so I found it difficult to follow. In any event, I’m sure many of us who have enjoyed message boards, instant messages and now blogs don’t find it difficult to see which comment relates to which earlier sub-thread. Thank you for reverting to the known and much loved formula.
Yeah, toward the end there the bigger topics were freezing the browser on my laptop… which has never happened before and is not happening now. Odd.
Linear format much better, thanks for switching back!
My problem was that when I came back to the discussion, maybe an hour or two later, I’d have to go back over all the messages that I had already read to see if there were new comments. With a linear discussion, I can quickly find out the last comment that I had read and easily read the new ones.
Anthony,
Many thanks for reverting to the old format. So much faster and therefore easier to just look at the end of the comments for new entries.
What a wonderful “problem” to have! Too many comments to easily follow…
‘Tis a far different world in which we live, compared to the lonely pamphleteer of yesteryear, who would never know if anyone ever read his little pamphlets.
Roger Sowell (19:42:45) :
Anthony,
Many thanks for reverting to the old format. So much faster and therefore easier to just look at the end of the comments for new entries.
What a wonderful “problem” to have! Too many comments to easily follow…
‘Tis a far different world in which we live, compared to the lonely pamphleteer of yesteryear, who would never know if anyone ever read his little pamphlets.
Roger: IMHO – The use of the Intranet/BLOGs is a transition that will prove to be as impactful on society as the invention and subsequent use of the printing press.
Nested comments could work if you have a way to flag new-comments-since-last-visit. But that can be tricky if your visit is cut short, and you come back—then you’ve missed some of the last bunch, which aren’t ‘new’ anymore.
So linear is better. But a better way of formatting posts would be desirable, as on many online forums, i.e. select and click the style you want.
Also, a ‘Quote’ button would be mighty handy.
All told, though, a fascinating site (to which I am new). How in the world do the regular denizens find time to read through all the comments?
/Mr Lynn
Thank you. For those of us who are visually impaired, nested comments were too tricky to follow.
I really appreciate your work here, Anthony.
Mr. Watts,
what are the impediments to implementing numbering comments on this site ?
Please enlighten us.
Thank you.
Yeah, I got so confused, I almost replied to my own post.
I’m one of the blackberry users, I just appreciate this sight, and am happy with whatever format it is in.
We don’t have lives, to be honest. We sit in the dark hitting ‘refresh’ and pounce on the next entry. We are a sorry troglodytic lot – flee while you can!
Some sites provide the visitors a choice of linear or nested options, and you can switch back and forth betwen the two, but that has it’s own issues.
An interesting experiment, but reading through a slew of comments to find new ones gets old in a hurry. It was a good try though. Glad you’ve gone back to the old format.
jorgekafkazar (20:37:38) :
“Yeah, I got so confused, I almost replied to my own post.”
Yes and the worst part was I was disagreeing with me.